By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
A Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr. Gideon Boako, says the Finance Minister, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, will end the 2025 fiscal year with over GHS200 billion in domestic debt if nothing is done to pull brakes on the rate of borrowing.
Addressing members of the media at a press conference organised by the Minority Caucus in Parliament, the Member of Parliament for Tano North Constituency argued that the John Mahama-led administration’s excessive reliance on domestic borrowing is unsustainable and will place a heavy burden on future governments.
“Ato Forson said the government has about GHS153 billion in interest payments on the domestic market to pay. That is what he says President Akufo-Addo has left for him. And he is going to pay about GHS70 billion next year and another GHS50-something billion the following year.
Despite inheriting these obligations, the government has already accumulated an alarming level of new domestic debt in just two months.
If Akufo-Addo has, in eight years, left you GHS153 billion as interest payments on the domestic market to pay, and in just two months, you have borrowed GHS73 billion from the market, then we have a serious problem. Today is Thursday; tomorrow is Friday—the Finance Minister is going to borrow an additional GHS6 billion from the domestic market, pushing the total to nearly GHS80 billion in just two months,” he stressed.
Dr. Boako cautioned that if the borrowing trend continues at such a pace, Ghana’s debt situation will spiral out of control, leaving future administrations with an even greater financial crisis.
“So you can see clearly that we have a problem as a country, and we need to address this issue. It cannot be addressed by the approach this government is taking. Otherwise, by the time they finish this year, I can tell you Ato Forson will end this year with domestic borrowing above GHS200 billion. We are in for serious trouble,” the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee opined.
